Buying your first Koda: mechanics and the five checks
Kodas trade like any NFT — and get misdescribed like any NFT. This is the mechanics-and-verification guide: where Kodas trade, how asks and offers differ, how to price-check a Koda from recorded facts rather than listing copy, and the checks to run before any purchase. Mechanics, not advice — the same rule as the deed buying guide.
Where and how Kodas trade
The standalone collection ("Otherside Koda") trades on the major marketplaces; the live book on this site's Koda market page sweeps the cheapest ask per Koda. Two prices exist for everything: the ETH ask (what a seller wants) and WETH offers (bids that a seller can accept). A sale that printed as an accepted WETH bid is a different market fact from an ETH ask that got taken — bid-hits usually clear below asks — so this site records and labels the two separately everywhere. When someone quotes "last sale," ask which kind.
Pricing a Koda from facts
Most Kodas on this site carry a model estimate — a statistical output fitted to recorded ETH sales, published only where the sample supports it (how it's built, and where we refuse: Megas never get one, thin cohorts stay receipts-only). Treat it as a starting point, not an answer. The facts that outrank it when they disagree: recorded prints with dates and sale types, cohort medians (Mega, KodaPendant, Mega-trait counts, abilities) each with its sample size, and the live listed count against tradable supply. The honest workflow: read the estimate's own breakdown on the Koda's page, then check its cohort medians and recent prints — and mind that a median built on three sales is a hint, not a level. Thin markets move on single transactions.
The five checks before you buy
1. Pull the trait sheet yourself. Look the token id up in the Koda browser — every claimed trait, Mega value, and ability has a countable carrier list. Listings exaggerate; metadata doesn't. 2. Verify Mega and pendant claims from badges, not titles. The MEGA and pendant badges here render only from trait data (99 Megas · 1,629 pendants). 3. Check the lock state. A 🔒 Koda is fused inside a deed and cannot be bought as a Koda — if you want it, you're buying the deed, and paying for land plus creature. 4. Compare before you commit. Koda Compare puts candidate trait sheets side by side; every Koda page lists its six closest profiles, which is a fast way to see whether a "one of a kind" pitch survives contact with the data. 5. Read the prints, not the floor. The floor is one number about the cheapest listing; the recorded sales are many numbers about what buyers actually paid.
Catching the listing you want
The free Koda alert watches the book for you: set a max price plus criteria — Mega, any Mega trait value, pendant, abilities — and get pinged when a match lists, to Discord or a private status page. Seven days, no account, and the alert reads the same verified trait data as everything else here.
Related reading: Koda traits and abilities · Buying your first Otherdeed — the land-side counterpart, including wallet hygiene basics that apply equally here.
Sources
- Live book, recorded prints and cohort medians: the Koda market page, collection rules in the methodology — ETH/WETH separation, exclusions, and what the data cannot see.
- All carrier counts: the Koda browser, built from Yuga's koda metadata API.